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Dashi Curry is a curry made without store-bought curry mix but with dashi stock and curry powder, thickened with starch. It’s a simpler type of Japanese curry often found at Soba or Udon noodle shops, in contrast to curry specialty stores that use more complicated spices and ingredients. Unlike traditional Japanese curries that rely on instant curry roux, Dashi Curry offers a more straightforward approach to this beloved comfort food. By using curry powder and Dashi—a fundamental Japanese stock made from bonito flakes—the dish gains a rich, umami depth without relying on processed ingredients. The simplicity of Dashi Curry doesn’t compromise on flavor. Instead, it highlights the clean, subtle tastes of Dashi and the warmth of curry powder, creating a dish that feels simple and homey. I hope you give it a try soon!

Pork and Cabbage Curry is a simple variation of Curry and Rice using Japanese curry sauce mix. Typical Japanese curry requires some time to stew beef, potatoes, and carrots. This curry features thinly sliced pork and cabbage, which takes significantly less time to cook. The flavor combination of pork, ginger, and cabbage resembles Pork Shogayaki, another popular Japanese dish for lunch and dinner. If you feel like having curry, but you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen, try Pork and Cabbage Curry. You can also substitute thinly sliced pork with any other protein of choice such as thinly sliced chicken, beef, or tofu. This is a great dish to make on a busy weekday.

Soup curry is a type of curry-flavored soup served with lightly fried vegetables and steamed rice. Unlike traditional curry, it has a lighter consistency, and the rice is typically served separately, allowing diners to dip the rice into the soup as they eat. Soup curry is known for its light flavor and abundant vegetables, and it has become more of a staple rather than just a trend, joining typical Japanese curry dishes in many menus.

In our mini-series of Japanese Cooking 101 in Kyoto, we are going to different stores from traditional to trendy, and show you a glimpse of the culinary scene of Kyoto in 2023. After we tasted delicious food at stores, we tried to recreate those dishes, not exactly but more in our own way, at home in Kyoto. We hope you enjoy our Japanese Cooking 101 food in a little different setting from our regular videos.

This episode is Butter Chicken. While dark brown stew-like Japanese curry is the curry we love, mildly spiced and designed for eating with Japanese Steamed Rice, Butter Chicken is a more spicy Indian curry. As spiced curry has become more well known and accepted in Japan, there are many spiced curry specialty restaurants that have opened up to serve Butter Chicken. As well as the popularity of spiced curry restaurants, one of the reasons Butter Chicken became so popular was boil-in-the-pouch Butter Chicken from a large household goods store chain called Muji. Their version got really good reviews on the internet and made the mainstream public know its name. That pushed Butter Chicken to be one of the favorite curry dishes on the list.

Curry Yakisoba is stir-fried noodles flavored with curry powder. The spicy curry aroma stimulates the appetite at any moment. Here, beef is used as protein in the dish, but it can be easily replaced with chicken or pork. And that’s the same for the vegetables. Cabbage, broccoli, and onions work very well too. Curry Yakisoba is a great simple lunch perfect for one or two people. Or multiply the recipe, and make this as dinner to serve the entire family!

Curry and Rice (カレーライス) is Japanese-style thick curry sauce with chunky meat and vegetables over Steamed Rice. It is one of the most eaten dishes in Japan today whether at curry restaurants or at home. Curry and Rice is not traditional Japanese food at all, but it is an essential food in modern Japanese cuisine.

Curry Udon is hot Udon noodles in a curry soup and is one of the popular items on menus at Udon restaurants in Japan.  These hearty noodles are loved by a lot of Japanese people even though it is not really like the more traditional clear Udon soup.  From time to time, especially in colder months, everyone craves the warmth of rich and heavy flavors of Curry dishes, like Curry Rice and Curry Udon.  Although making authentic Curry Udon is not as simple as just replacing rice with Udon, it is quite easy to make restaurant-style Curry Udon to serve at home.